Home › Forums › Archives › Computer Support › Computer Support Discussion › Neowin: Lycos Releases Spam Fighting Screensaver
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November 29, 2004 at 11:33 pm #15060Someguy03Member
The screensaver will use your computer to continuously load webpages (without actually showing them) of spamming companies in an attempt to make the bandwith bills of these companies soar.
Get the screensaver: http://makelovenotspam.com/
Quote:quote:Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail. Lycos hopes will it make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out. The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data.The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods. As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Pollmann.
“We’ve never really solved the big problem of spam which is that its so damn cheap and easy to do,” said Malte Pollmann, spokesman for Lycos Europe. “In the past we have built up the spam filtering systems for our users,” he said, “but now we are going to go one step further.”
Screen shot of the screensaver:
November 29, 2004 at 11:45 pm #106403MartinBradleyMemberWell, the idea sounds great.
I don’t think it’ll put an end to spam, but to be honest, if I was a spammer, I’d certainly be put off. It’ll be great if it works.
November 29, 2004 at 11:48 pm #106401CharlesMemberDamn. I love it!
😀
I’m installing it right now…this could get interesting.
November 29, 2004 at 11:50 pm #106400Jeff HesterKeymasterThis should put some pressure on the spammers. By consuming their bandwidth, it makes them pay for their sins. Of course, it also consumes your bandwidth. I wouldn’t recommend using this at work or if you have a network of computers at home — the other people on your network won’t appreciate it. 😉
November 30, 2004 at 3:35 pm #106404DeadeyeMemberSounds like a great idea, they hit us, we hit them back.
I’m in.December 1, 2004 at 2:36 am #106402Someguy03MemberIt does kind of anger me though. Lycos is trying to be anti-spam by releasing this screensaver, but they have a adware toolbar (Lycos Search Bar). Hypocrites. =)
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